My bug-out bag is intended to be modular. If my vehicle remains operational, I don't have to carry all this equipment. If I do have to go on foot, I can forego certain parts of the kit (for example, my extra ammo bag and extra radio) and save some weight.

One thing I want to add to the bug-out bag is a hand-held ham radio/scanner/gps, specifically a Yaesu unit. I would also like to add a multi-tool, such as a Victorinox or Leatherman.

Some may ask: why do you have ammo, but no gun? Trust me, I ALWAYS have a gun somewhere near me; it's just a matter of which ones and how many. I have ammo for most of them in my little ammo pack in the bug-out bag.

Okay, here's the contents, grouped by sub-kit and location within the backpack.

The "target" is shown in far-infrared (heat vision) by the drone next to a lake or small pond, apparently operating in total darkness.

Cops take "target" person down and prones him out, as the drone continues to surveil in heat vision. "One 1045 in custody." Cop drags him away.

Title slide: "Arms Trafficking Surveillance".

A black car is shown in the daytime on the drone's camera. It's clear this is taking place in rural America, as the car is announced by the drone operator as having Texas plates. It pulls up next to a red Mustang, with the drone continuing to surveil.

Two men in coats get out of the cars. There is dispatcher chatter that "wo white males" have a handgun out. Looks like a Glock or an M&P. Black car guy hands it to Mustang guy, who checks the sights and dry-fires it. Looks like a private sale.

Black-car guy pulls out an AR-15 from his trunk. I can't tell that it's semi-auto, but with a flashlight and a red-dot scope, why wouldn't it be? Who has a full-auto M16 tricked out like that?

Comment from dispatcher or drone operator: "Suspect just pulled an ASSAULT RIFLE from the trunk." Nice propaganda! The big-city police viewing this ad are probably salivating at this point

Guy in the tan coat from the Mustang sights down the scope, checks controls on the rifle, like he's looking it over to buy it.

Looks like Mustang guy pays black-car guy with some kind of wallet. It's cash and carry, and the Mustang guy puts his purchases into his car's trunk. Dispatcher is talking like a crime has just been committed.

KEEP IN MIND: THIS IS TOTALLY LEGAL IN TEXAS! AS IT SHOULD BE throughout the United States! The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed!

Shots of the drone following the black car.

Shots of heat vision, officer? taking down the seller of the AR and the Glock?

This is exactly the scenario the company that produce this UAV see it being used: on AMERICAN soil to capture people who are engaging in Constitutional, private transactions to purchase arms, the right to keep and bear such is protected by the strongest language in the Constitution, "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED".

The company who makes this drone, Vanguard UAS, knows that very shortly, there is going to be a market for their drone in America, doing precisely this kind of jack-booted tyranny,

It is my firm belief that civil war is now inevitable and imminent in America. As with the two world wars of the early 20th century, this will be "Civil War II"...

I fully expect, therefore, that war will break out on our own soil in 2013, unless something drastic is done to reign in the arrogance of Obama and the Washington ruling establishment. These people must be stopped by the process that has been put in place to do so, or else the citizens will take matters into their own hands.

The official line in the sand is the gun issue...

We will not comply with any new gun control law.

We will not turn in any firearm that you suddenly decide to be "illegal." They are illegal only in your own delusional minds.

In the event you limit ammunition or require us to register to get it, we will create the biggest black market in the history of the world. We can make our own ammunition.

We will not comply with any new gun bans. We can make our own guns as well, even the type you wish to take from us.

The attempt to gain entrance to our homes to confiscate our guns and ammunition will be considered an act of war. We will not comply. Be prepared to kill us if you do such an asinine thing in what is supposed to be a FREE country. But then, also be aware that you will pay a heavy price for perpetrating such tyranny.

We will never fire on tyrannical government personnel first. But if we are fired upon first, you had best be prepared to live with what follows. War is hell.

Never again will we allow you to perpetrate a Waco, Texas massacre on citizens merely for trying to practice their religion, though unpopular. And we will never again allow you to pull a Ruby Ridge without swift, severe consequences.

I agree with all above. The time for politics to work is passed; the Federal Government is now fully corrupt. We may still avail through public outcry, and work with the powers in our own states; I pray it is so. But if not, war will come.

Sometimes, a song will play in my mind, looping over and over, as my spirit or subconscious or whatever is trying to evoke a truth, or a feeling, or a memory of something long passed, or maybe a portent of something that, deep inside, I feel is about to happen.

Today, that song is "Trail of Tears" by one of my favorite guitarists of all time, Eric Johnson.

Lyrics (via Lyrics007.com):

Take me from these earth bound chains
I must find it once again
Meaning of equality
We will never hide in shame
But forever guard the flame
Burning for eternity

(Chorus) Hundreds of nights
Oh, my body cries
A trail of tears

Promises sometimes don't keep
Freedom, put to sleep, and now I know
Written with the words you tell
Stories, a lesson in life from long ago

Hold on, hold dear
The time is near
When you'll know why
The spirit flies

Children carried on your back
Driven through the wind and cold
How have you become so few
But in the end, oh, I will see
Your spiritual liberty
Forever to be with you

Though Ol' Backwoods has Cherokee ancestors, my forebears were not forced by the Federal Government of the United States to endure the Trail of Tears to travel from our ancestral home in the Appalachian Mountains to the unknown wilds of Eastern Oklahoma. Still, I sense something of what they must have felt.

These days, I am thinking more and more about the future of America, and believe that those who are patriots and loyal to the vision of the Founders are going to have to geographically collect themselves. If it is not done now, it may be forced by circumstance in the future. I think those Patriot strongholds are going to be in the South and Intermountain West.

I pray we do not have to be "driven through the wind and cold" with "children carried on [our] back," and our "freedom, put to sleep." And I don't know why my subconscious/spirit is looping this through my mind.

Ol' Backwoods hears all kinda tales about what does and does not work in hunting cartridges. Some folks say a 16" AR firing .223 is inadequate for deer, while others say with the right bullets and loads, it can be done. Of course, the mainstream media is all over the place, from claiming "an AR-15 cannot be used to hunt deer" to 'deer would explode from being hit with the high-caliber bullet of a Bushmaster assault rifle'. Yeah, buddy.

Some folks claim it ain't legal or ethical to hunt deer with .223, but only Indiana has a direct prohibition, as far as I can tell (and prohibited in Virginia,4VAC15-270-10-- thanks Jake). In North Carolina, it's fully legal, as it is in other states. As far as the ethics of it, as long as I'm confident I can follow the blood trail to a dead deer in a reasonable amount of distance-- say, 100 yards or less, I think the shot is ethical.

I think I have found a bullet / powder combination that just might work on the small deer we have in North Carolina, and additionally on feral hogs of smaller stature. Our deer ain't that big, dressing out under 200 pounds in most cases.

Fully aware that the general consensus lies in the BELIEF that the .223 is inadequate for deer, I still wanted to hunt with my AR-15 (.223 Rem) so I did my research and decided to give these bullets a try. Accuracy out of my 20" 1:8 Bushmaster Predator was quite good with five shot groups consistently under one inch.

With a max load of H4895, [muzzle] velocity averaged 2913 ft/s which I calculated to produce 1343 [ft-lb muzzle energy].

I had full confidence that this load would perform well as long as the shot was placed carefully, but I was surprised to find that it handled a challenging quartering forward (through the shoulder) shot with ease (Whitetail Deer 125lbs dressed).

The shot hit the leg bone squarely totally shattering it. It then smashed through a rib bone shattering it. The bullet continued through the heart and lungs and then exited on the far side. Measuring diagonally, the bullet penetrated more than 17" of deer. The deer ran a short 50 yards and expired.

[Ol' Backwoods sez: Elmer Keith used to call that "a raking shot through the boiler room."]

With increased confidence in this load, I continued hunting and was able to take a second deer with the same results. Shattered leg bone, shattered rib, destroyed heart and lungs, and exited on the far side. Down within 50 yards!

The only downside to this bullet/load combination is that the entrance hole was small and the exit [hole] was only about 3/4" in diameter. [The] blood trail was light, but still easy to follow after the first 25 yards.

In summary, I highly recommend this bullet to anyone that would like to use the .223 Rem on deer.

My AR's have 16" M4-type barrels with a 1 in 9 twist, which should be able to stabilize this bullet better than the reviewer's 1:8 twist, though his barrel is 2" longer than mine; I'll lose a tiny bit of velocity.

Here's Barnes' load data:

Hmm, 23.5 grains of Hodgdon 4895 for a max load. 2879 FPS is pretty close to what our reviewer above got, 2913 FPS. The load-test rifle had a 24" barrel, which you'd think would bring a larger velocity than our reviewer's 20" AR, but it didn't.

I think the reason this bullet works on deer as well as it does is Barnes' patented hydraulic expansion technique. It's illustrated in this frame capture from a Barnes video, showing the Barnes TSX all-copper bullet vs a lead-core competitor:

Well, we'll see. I got some 70-grain TSX bullets on order from Midway USA. It's AMAZING to actually find some .224-diameter bullets in stock ANYWHERE, but Midway does indeed as of this writing have them in stock.

I got a pound or two of H4895 laying around, too. I'm gonna load some of these TSX's up, and shoot them into gelatin out at my buddy Jim's farm, and see how they do.

Gun-banning Deputy Nils Swenson takes control of Northfork when the Marshall is out of town.

Hijinks ensues.

After Swenson stops a man from shooting off his revolver in celebration, he gets an idea. A very bad idea.

Deputy Swenson: "People carryin' around guns, causin' trouble. Take away the guns, no trouble."Lucas: "Have you had any trouble since [Marshall] Micah left?Swenson: "Well, no..."Lucas: "Nils, this territory has a lot of growin' up to do. And until that's done, we can't take away a man's right to protect himself."

I would argue that should never happen. But our Nils goes full Cuomo nonetheless.

Shortly after the sign goes up, a gang rides into town. Swenson tells them of the new 'law'. As he hands him his pistol belt, the leader, Platt tells Swenson, "I'm glad your're bringing some pioneering ideas to this town, Marshall!" Sarah Brady and Gabby Giffords would be proud, indeed! Polish up the twisted-barrel revolver statue at the UN!

Later, in the saloon, Platt, the gang leader says, "Look at that. Not a gun in the place. [sarcasm] Sure is nice seeing people living peaceful... this isn't the Northfork I heard about. This isn't a town of lawmen! This is a town of sittin' ducks!" Give that man a pocket Constitution!

"Let's go see the Marshall. Get our guns. We're leavin' town. In the morning, we'll be back... just about the time the bank opens!"

Cue the ominous: Dum, dum, DUMMMMMM!

Platt: "Gentlemen, let's drink to the Marshall! We owe him a lotta thanks for makin' this town a safe place to travel!"

Yeah, for CRIMINALS!

I won't spoil the ending for ya, but Nils does learn a thing or two about the nature of fallen mankind, and the folly of his own ego. And Lucas McCain's Winchester .44-40 lever action gets a workout, too. Man, I love those guns!

WELCOME New Readers! Please click here to see my latest posts when you're done! Thanks!
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It's Friday, and Ol' Backwoods' browser is loaded down with stuff he's been reading all week. Time for me to load up the bed of your mind truck, so back it on up here...

Come and get them, Herr Professor. Just try. You have no idea what kind of hell you will unleash. And note, people: all the "smart" Democrats read this website, and most of them agree with every word this man writes.

WhatBubbaKnows, a blog that is a daily read here in the Backwoods, relates a tale:

Reminds me of a story: I was a guest at an private shooting range a couple of years ago. I was dropping .30-06 into the head of a human silhouette target on the 300 yard range. A feller stepped over when I was taking a break and asked, “Getting ready for deer season?”

And speaking of so-called workers: those who do not produce in America now outnumber we the producers 3:1...

"Total Income Taxpayers in 2011 with individual income tax liability of $1 or greater: 87.8 million...
Estimated voting-age population in 2012: 240 million
Those who pay federal income taxes are outnumbered by those eligible to vote by about 3 to 1."

And speaking of looters, who is protecting these murderers on death row?To Kill A Murderer

"The Pro-Murderer Anti-Death Penalty lobby is very wealthy and very active. The rights of criminals have always been more protected than those of victims and the war being waged on the death penalty is an international campaign. While the parents of victims wait decades for closure, the international left wages a ceaseless war against them."

And speaking of the International Left, why is the US Government sending gold that Germany has bought to China instead? Maybe it's to hold off the inevitable crash a little bit longer?

This is the rape rate at Colorado State University. This is the rape rate at CSU after concealed carry of pistols was allowed on campus. It went down, way down. Any questions?

Colorado is wasting money trying to ban guns, and will drive jobs (see: MagPul) out of state.

And speaking of wasting money: The Federal Government spent $5.2 MILLION studying whether the behavior of goldfish can teach us anything about democracy. This is in the "military" budget. What. The. Heck. Cut it all, now.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Democide is the elimination of a despised group by a government. It includes genocide, politicide, and other forms of state-sponsored mass murder. The hated minority headed for extermination may be defined by religious, racial, political, class, cultural or other attributes. Between 200 and 260 million people were the victims of democide in the 20th century, several times more than were killed in international wars during that period.

The first widely studied modern democide occurred in Turkey between 1915 and 1923, when the Turkish government decided to eliminate the country’s Christian minority, primarily ethnic Armenians and Greeks who had Turkish roots extending back to before the Islamic conquest. Two million Christians were murdered on forced marches into deserts without water or food. This democide occurred in view of Western reporters, who took photographs and posted contemporary wire reports. The fact that the democide was known outside Turkey did not deter the Turkish leaders.

The Armenian Genocide, as it has become known, was also widely known inside Turkey, where the majority Muslim population either supported or at least passively tolerated the democide. It was impossible to miss the sight of thousands of Christians at a time being rounded up and force-marched through towns and into the burning deserts on one-way trips.

Stalin and Hitler both noticed the lack of world reaction to the democide of Turkish Christians and planned accordingly. In the Soviet Union, Stalin’s henchmen purged millions of “kulaks” (farmers deemed to have too much wealth), intellectuals, businessmen, and anyone who had ever traveled outside the USSR or even had had contact with foreigners.

In Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe, Hitler proceeded with his own “final solution to the Jewish problem.” Where the German national socialists simply eliminated Jews as quickly as possible in mass graves and gas chambers, Stalin’s international socialists deported their “class enemies” to Siberia, where they were put to work in Gulag slave-labor camps, with years of torture through cold, malnutrition and brutal working conditions preceding the release of eventual death.

Stalin also devised another means of democide when he ordered the forced starvation of the Ukrainians, and five million more innocent victims were added to his totals. In Communist China seventy million people were the victims of democide, murdered by overwork in slave-labor camps, by direct execution, and by regional forced starvation. Millions more were victims of democide in Pakistan, Cambodia, Rwanda, North Korea, and many other countries.

Democide, as the name implies, does not happen in the dark of night without any awareness of it in the country where it occurs. The Turks knew the Christians were being mass murdered. Average Germans were fully aware of what was happening to the Jews between 1938 and 1945, and a large majority either actively supported or at least tolerated it. (I strongly recommend reading Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, by Daniel Goldhagen, to fully appreciate the wholehearted German support for the Jewish democide.)

Today, we sometimes hear that the Second Amendment has outlived its usefulness, that it is a relic of our barbaric past and is no longer needed in the modern era. Horrific mass shootings by deranged individuals are cited as the primary reason for Americans to surrender their most effective firearms and rely solely on a state monopoly of force for their protection. This government-dependent attitude is shortsighted, historically ignorant, and extremely dangerous.

In each of the cases cited above, a necessary preliminary step on the road to democide was the confiscation of privately owned firearms. In Turkey, “reasonable” gun control laws enacted in 1911 permitted the democide of two million Turkish Christians a few years later. In Germany, the “commonsense” 1928 gun control laws of the Weimar Republic preceded Hitler’s Holocaust by a decade.

The Weimar politicians did not intend for their gun control laws to lead to the slaughter of millions of people, but it is an historical fact that those gun control laws permitted the Nazis to carry out their Holocaust. How? By making it economically and militarily feasible to round up and mass murder entire towns without any significant resistance.

In fact, the Nazis quickly learned that they needed only a hundred ordinary military policemen to exterminate towns of a thousand Polish Jews in a single day. Contrast that fact with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. If the Jews had not first been disarmed, using previous gun registration lists as a map for confiscation, the Holocaust would not have been possible.

Likewise in the Soviet Union and in every other case, democide was preceded by “reasonable and commonsense” firearms registration, followed eventually by gun confiscation and then by the extermination of a despised minority population.

During the past two centuries, while America has avoided tyranny, Turkey, Germany, Russia and the other nations mentioned above have spasmodically lurched between monarchs, democratically elected leaders, and often quite popular dictators, allowing them frequent opportunities to commit democide against their unwanted minorities.

The situation is fundamentally different in America, because we have a centuries-old tradition of private firearms ownership guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The Second Amendment does not “grant” us this right; it puts into writing our God-given natural right to effective self-defense, including armed defense against tyranny.

“Pure democracy” has been described as two wolves and a sheep voting on their dinner plans. The two wolves might see this election as an expression of their highest democratic values, but for the outnumbered sheep, pure democracy is highly problematic. On the other hand, a republic has been described as two wolves and a well-armed sheep voting on dinner plans. The well-armed sheep can veto the outcome of the dinner election simply by brandishing its firearm. The sheep has inherent rights as a sovereign individual, including the right to self-defense, a right that cannot be stripped away by a simple majority vote.

So, when a democratically elected American president speaks of “fundamentally transforming” his country, and of his need to act outside the constitutional framework, the population should be on guard. When that leader begins to push for strict new “commonsense and reasonable” gun control laws, including national firearms registration in the name of “public safety,” the citizenry should be on high alert.

Can any glib politician, pundit or ivory tower academic give us an ironclad guarantee that tyranny will never arise in the United States? Not even a popular tyranny, like those of Ataturk, Stalin, Hitler or Mao? Can anyone assure us that today’s “commonsense” gun registration lists will not be used for future gun confiscation? Of course not.

The future may be unknowable, but history is well understood, and American gun owners know and understand the history of democide in the 20th century. That is why they will never accede to what is currently portrayed in the predominantly left-wing mainstream media as “commonsense and reasonable” new gun control laws.

While American gun owners lament and regret the inescapable fact that deranged individuals in a free country may on rare occasions murder a dozen or a score of unarmed victims, they also understand that government democide murders by the million. And in every case, tyrants can conduct these democides only after disarming their unwanted minorities, rendering them helpless to resist murderous government pogroms.

American gun owners will never permit this historical pattern to be repeated in their country, because they understand that the government’s heavy hand will be kept in check only as long as they are armed. Ask yourself: Were the Armenians, the Jews or the kulaks treated better, or worse, after they were disarmed and rendered helpless by their oppressors, who thereafter held an absolute government monopoly on armed violence? The answer is too obvious to require elaboration.

Naive utopians and other “low-information voters” might not understand the historical pattern, and we don’t expect them to bother to learn it. Cynical and dishonest “progressives” who do understand the historical pattern cannot yet reveal their ultimate goal of creating a disarmed and helpless American citizenry. Nevertheless, millions of Americans understand their hidden aim with crystal clarity, seeing through the false sincerity of power-hungry leftist politicians who are actually Marxist wolves dressed in Democrat sheep’s clothing—for now.

But unless and until these secret Stalinists and sundry other “progressives” can figure out a way to disarm Americans, they cannot execute their historically standard final solution to the “reactionaries-standing-in-the-way-of-utopia” problem. And this is a thorny problem for them, because tens of millions of Americans, disbelieving their deceitful bromides, will stick to their guns no matter what.

Unlike the Armenians, Jews, kulaks and other exterminated peoples, Americans who support the Second Amendment will never be disarmed quietly by government edict prior to meekly boarding a train to a socialist “reeducation” camp. They will not be taken at government gunpoint on a one-way forced march into a desert or a Zyklon-B “delousing shower,” simply because they foolishly agreed to be disarmed by their future oppressors in the dubious name of “public safety.”

If American “progressives” truly intend to disarm the American people, they will have to do it the hard way, by taking their bullets first, one at a time. As the 300 Spartans announced to the vastly larger Persian army at Thermopylae, “Molon Labe!”

It ain't a joke. Not a Photoshop. These are actual targets that are being produced and sold by LE Targets to the Department of Homeland Security. These people are all in home settings, many of them looking defensive. Yet, DHS is training their jackbooted thugs to murder them.

Still don't think they're planning a civil war? Look at these pictures. Again, each and every one of them is situated IN A PRIVATE HOME. These are practice runs for federal home invasions and gun confiscation. Anyone denying that is fooling themselves.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Back in 1999, Ol' Backwoods was really into radar. I designed a 5.7 GHz radar to track the oversized model rockets known as high-power amateur rockets. Some of these go to altitudes over 20 miles, although the ones I tracked never went over about 35,000 ft. This weekend, while digging through some old stuff in one of my storage sheds, I found one of my radar antennas.

There were several iterations of this system, known as DARTS, for Digital Amateur Rocket Tracking System. In one of them, I used a frequency-scanned linear array to point the transmit beam in the left-right (azimuth) direction. The frequency of the transmit signal, over about a 50 MHz range, literally controlled the beam direction from left to right.

The antenna itself is about 7" wide. The coax would be connected at the left edge. The antenna was milled on a T-Tech Quick Circuit circuit board milling machine, just like the one in my lab off to the left of me now.

Theoretically, by the time the signal went through all the elements in the array, there would be no signal left; it would all be radiated outward. But since the phases never lined up exactly right except when the beam was pointed straight ahead, I had a small surface-mount resistor to get rid of the rest of the signal.

Since the rocket had a transponder on it to bounce the signal back, I didn't have to transmit much power. Plus, as I recall, this array had over 20 dB of gain when pointed straight ahead.

Back in 1991, Ol' Backwoods Engineer was still a spring chicken, and a newlywed. My wife and I were going to a big St. Valentine's Day shindig at our church, and the thing was, the guys were all supposed to make (not buy) a Valentine's card for our wives and significant gals. The gals were supposed to guess which card was theirs based on the reading of them.

Well, y'all know Ol' Backwoods has to go big, or go home. So, I skipped a few classes in Vector Calculus and some others, and built this Talking Valentine's Day Card, and wrote the firmware for it.

Here is a video of it still working in 2013! It is saying, "OK! Hello, I am your Talking Valentine Card. 'Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing' and in this case also needs batteries!"

My wife knew it was hers as soon as it started talking. She didn't even need to hear the part about "Love is a many-splendored thing" which was a song in our wedding. She knew, geek card had to be from her man. And she was right.

This Talking Valentine card is one of my wife's prized possessions. I have replaced batteries and battery holders over the years, but the rest of the thing is all original.

Taking a look at the internal construction, on the left we have a 4-AA battery pack putting out 6V, that is regulated down to 5.1V by a Zener and a resistor. That thing gobbles the current, since most of the chips in it are the old NMOS variety.

You might also notice that it is wired with a combination of wire-wrap and point-to-point wiring. All the crystals (there are 4 of them!) are soldered directly to the packages of the ICs, or to the wire-wrap sockets. No loading capacitance was required with all that hanging wire!

Below is a zoom of the rear of the circuit board. Wrap-IDs, the little labels that went over wire-wrap sockets, are still available today, believe it or not. They are very handy.

Below is a shot of the front of the board. I have added some comments in red of the various chips, but they are probably too small to see.

The top-most 40-pin chip is an 8035, an NMOS ROM-less variant of the then-popular MCS-48 microcontroller family from Intel. (Intel is out of the microcontroller business now!) It rocks a ginormous 64 bytes of RAM.

Below that, on the left, is a UV EPROM containing the firmware for the microcontroller. To save room on the board, I used an 8764 EPROM that has built-in address latches, as the 8035's address bus has the lower 8 bits multiplexed with the data bus.

To the right of the EPROM is the General Instruments SP0256A-AL2 speech phoneme generator, that once upon a time Radio Shack used to sell. Of course, General Instruments created the PIC microcontroller, which begat Microchip Corporation. I didn't have the exact crystal frequency the SP0256 required, so I used a colorburst crystal (3.57945 MHz), which were plentiful then, because every TV set had one. With digital TV taking over, colorburst crystals are not as important.

Below the EPROM is a programmable logic device, a UV-erasable PALC22V10. I wrote the pattern for this device using an ancient HDL compiler called PALASM, which some of the old-timers may remember. This PAL acts as an address latch for the text-to-speech processor below it, and also does some glue logic to tie the whole circuit together. It saved space from having to have different packages of TTL logic.

To the far right is an LM386 audio amplifier. I wish I had increased the gain, as the speaker is still not very loud.

Below that is the General Instruments CTL256A-AL2 text-to-speech processor, that Radio Shack also used to sell. This chip is a masked-ROM TMS-7000 (from TI) microprocessor, whose job is to translate English words and phrases into speech phonemes for the SP0256. I had to spell some words strangely to get it to sound right.

I have the 5-1/4" floppy is that contains the source code, and I'll have to find a computer that can read it! Below are the schematics, mechanical plan, and the source code for the PAL.

Sure, nobody's going to replicate this, but it gives you an idea of how things were done back in the day.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Update: Told ya they were ghouls, and would exploit Chris Kyle's murder.

Murderer was caught by good guys with guns, lefty.

Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffery, ghoul

Well, ain't this convenient. Right after the NRA formulates its cogent "the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" argument, a murder of an armed good guy in a place of arms happens, providing the Left a handy counter-example, though not necessarily an argument.

The context of the NRA's argument, of course, was a good guy protecting the innocent, not necessarily protecting himself from an insane murderer he already knew and, perhaps foolishly in hindsight, trusted not to betray him. Of course, such subtlety escapes the morally-retarded Left.

Chinese embedded tool supplier EmBest (now owned by Element 14) has come up with a new baseboard, the DM-STF4BB, for ST Microelectronics' wildly-popular (in geek circles) STM32F4 DISCOVERY board. On the box, Embest labels the baseboard the "Discover MO", and indeed, you do discover more about the STM32F4 processor with this board.

The board can be purchased on Element 14 for US$35. There is also a companion LCD (with touchscreen) and camera module that can be purchased separately, at the same link.

The Baseboard Itself

To the left is a picture of the baseboard with a DISCOVERY board plugged into it, the box the baseboard comes in, and the little card that tells you how to start up with the board, and where to download the firmware. The website says that a CD comes with the baseboard; I ordered two of these, and there was no CD in either one. Nor were there any cables of any kind.

In the picture of the baseboard to the left, you can see an RJ-45 Ethernet (100baseT) jack on the upper left, and next to it, an RS232 serial port (configured DTE). Just below that is the SMSCLAN8720 PHY chip for the Ethernet port, connected to the STM32F405 microcontroller on the DISCOVERY board via the pin-saving RMII interface. There is even a 50 MHz clock generated for use by the microcontroller (required for RMII).

At the bottom edge of the board is a TransFlash (Micro SD) card slot (right), and a camera interface slot. Since the STM32F4 microcontroller has a hardware interface for a digital camera module, I look forward to playing with that in the future. On the edges of the board are headers, breaking out the remaining microcontroller I/O pins; the header on the left is primarily for the LCD, although it can be used for other purposes.

The board is powered from the voltage regulators on the DISCOVERY board, via the STLINK USB debugger interface, or an external 5VDC power supply.

Firmware and Compilers

It is immensely frustrating to have a new piece of hackable hardware with very little code that is ready to run on the hardware. The DISCOVERY board itself fell victim to this in the early days, although there is more for it now. Embest has taken the firmware from ST Microelectronics and modified it so that it will work "out of the box" with the combination of the DISCOVERY and the DM-STF4BB baseboard. This helps us get up and running very quickly with the board combo. The firmware can be downloaded from Element 14's site here:

Unfortunately, the example firmware is designed for the IAR Embedded Workbench C Compiler and development environment for ARM (V6.40 or above). (Some of the projects also work on Keil's MDK.) I say unfortunately, because at a list price of $3543.99, very few developers are going to be using it. I've used it at work, and it is excellent. But, very few hobbyists and hackers are going to plunk down the price of two AR-15 rifles just for a compiler.

Fortunately, IAR allows a 30-day evaluation version of their IAR Embedded Workbench that runs on Windows. (Linux geeks--read the next paragraph.) You can download that here; you will acquire an evaluation license over the internet during install. BE SURE TO SELECT the 30-day, NOT the memory-limited 32K version. Most of the Embest firmware examples, including the USB and Ethernet demos, will not compile under the memory-limited version. (The UART demo will, but that doesn't do much.)

Once I get the demo software modified to do what I want it to do, I plan to convert over to ARM's free gcc compiler for the Cortex-M4. To do that will require fixing up dependencies, make files, library references and other details that I don't want to mess with while I am trying to get the code to do what I want it to do. Linux power users will probably scoff at this; I would encourage them to port the Embest example and give away their Makefiles and libraries.

A Simple UDP Transfer Demo

At right is a picture of the two board pairs I purchased, being powered through the USB ports of my laptop, and having their Ethernet ports connected with a straight-through 100baseT (CAT6) cable. (The LAN8720 PHY has auto-crossover, so a cross over cable isn't necessary.)

The two board pairs are continuously sending UDP datagrams over the Ethernet cable, in a one-way transfer. The leftmost board pair is programmed with UDP sender firmware (derived from Embest's udp_echo_client demo) , and the rightmost board pair is flashed with UDP 'sink' firmware (derived from the udp_echo_server demo). In the picture, the
UDP sinnk board pair has its RS232 port connected through a null modem and a gender changer to an RS232 port on my laptop, so I can view its report of transferred data. The UDP sender firmware has a similar capability, although the RS232 port is not shown connected in the picture.

I used the printf() redirector functions from the USART demo, and combined them with my firmware. Source is here: udpblaster udpsink

One of my favorite dumb terminal emulators for Windows is RealTerm, but as far as I can tell, it is no longer being actively developed. It does have a few bugs, but I like it nonetheless. RealTerm is used to show the RS232 serial output of the two ends of the UDP link.

Here is the RS232 output from the UDP data sender:

And here is the RS232 output on the UDP receiver:

The receiver is promiscuous, and will accept packets from any sender on any port.

You can download my firmware, created from the EmBest demo firmware, here: udpblaster udpsink

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

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This video is worth watching, friends, if you care about your rights and your freedom. Ol' Backwoods has even transcribed it for you, if you don't want to watch the whole thing. But it is much more powerful in the video (hat tip: WhatBubbaKnows).

Ex-Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino gave this speech this past weekend at Maryland's capitol grounds in Annapolis, for the Guns Across America Rally for the 2nd Amendment.

While I think the time for political solutions is rapidly coming to an end, Dan is correct that there is a good many things to still be done in the sphere of politics in the cause of liberty, and a lot of Americans aren't doing them. Direct action— like arming ourselves— must of course be taken, but assembling to petition the government still has an effect, as does voting, in some places.

Unlike most of these kinds of events, the video and audio are excellent quality.

TRANSCRIPT below video [Must Credit BackwoodsEngineer.com!]

TRANSCRIPT [Must Credit BackwoodsEngineer.com! Bolds are mine.]

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no such thing as Gun Control—don’t
co-opt their language—there is only
people control. And I can prove it to
you.

I spent 16 years of
my life with a badge on my chest— which proved as a target for some,
unfortunately—I don’t remember ever having the conversation, during my years in
the Secret Service, "Hey, listen, we’re taking the President to Boston, or
Chicago… So, let’s disarm because they have really strict gun control laws."

[crowd laughter]

Now, why is that funny?
The reason is, it’s funny because it’s funny! I never, in 15+ years of doing this, ever
arrested or investigated someone on a gun crime, who had that gun legally! So, you have to ask yourself: “Why?” It is
not about gun control! Do not co-opt the
language! When they own the language,
they own the argument. There is a reason
they are doing this.

You know, folks, it may disappoint some here, but you know,
I could have carried a gun, the entire time, anywhere in the United States, on
planes, anywhere I chose. I didn’t. That was my choice. It may have been a foolish one, but it was my
choice.

It was my choice. It was my God-given right to be able protect myself
and my family. It was my right, not given
to me by a piece of paper, only ensured by that piece of paper [the
Constitution]. That is not up for
debate!

The right to petition, the right to assemble—so beautifully
on this day—the right to speech is not given to you by the Governor or the
President of the United States! [applause]
That is not his to give! And if
it is not his to give, it is not his or hers or anyone else’s to take away!
[applause] Anyone!

Ladies and gentlemen, we are in perilous times. You know, I’m just a man, my spirit’s been
almost broken over this. This is our
country. That flag represents something.
Men and women have died horrible deaths—horrible
deaths!—my uncle being one of them, shot in the back in Vietnam, to protect
your very right, your liberty, your decision to be able to protect your
family!

We live, unfortunately—and, Lord, it pains me to say this—but
we live in a society of wolves! You do
not fight back by creating more sheep! [applause]

These are tough times, folks. And I want to leave you with this
thought. Our Revolution was one of the
only revolutions in human history, where those who defeated our enemies and
took power, created a document that dis-empowered them. Here, on this soil, in this country, in this
collective group of people we call the
beautiful United States.

It pains me to say this.
I’m not a right-wing nut-job. I’m
not a xenophobe. I’m not a
misogynist. I’m just a man. I’m just a guy who wants to live, and let
live. I don’t mind paying taxes for
our military. I will give you my last dollar to fund our beautiful
veterans who come home missing parts of their body, if they come home at
all. [applause]

But ladies and gentlemen, to use your tax dollars to fund a
government that every day, whittling more and more of your ability to live and
let live is not what the people who died and bled for her meant this country to
be! It is not what [the flag]
represents. It is not a piece of fabric,
it is not a tablecloth, that is an idea.
An idea that is unique to this place, right now, right here.

Act. Do not
talk. Action matters. This
speech is meaningless without action.

If you here are not registered to vote, you are not part of
the problem, you are the problem!
[applause] And I’m sorry if you don’t want to hear that! If you didn't show up because it was chilly,
or you felt your vote didn't make a difference, you’re the problem! If you
are not out here today, finding some way in your sphere of influence to
echo-chamber this message to 20 or 30 people, you’re the problem! And if in this next election, in 2014, you’re
not volunteering, or you’re not talking, or you’re not registered, or you’re
not voting, you’re the problem.

Friends, Ol' Backwoods loves a good societal-breakdown novel, and one of the best I've read is the 299 Days series by an acquaintance of mine, Glen Tate. It's a 10-book series, and Parts 1-4 are available at Amazon, linked from his site. I highly recommend it.

In one storyline in this partial-collapse novel, a neighborhood in Olympia, Washington is full of gun-grabbing, hoplophobic, government-worshiping folks that Glen calls "Loyalists." Now, a good many hoplophobes are all for gun confiscation, and I get the sense that the character "Nancy Ringman" would be all for it. In fact, I think Nancy could have written this letter to the editor of the Olympian:

Historical mythologists are hiding behind the Second Amendment, claiming “freedom” is the issue on gun control. The falseness of that claim must be exposed in the upcoming national conversation.

Really. Presidents Jefferson, Adams, and Washington would be surprised. The kook continues:

We are no longer a nation dependent on guns for our food. Nor is our safety primarily dependent on guns. We have well-regulated militias in our police departments. State and national guards leave their guns in the armory.

HAHA! Disregarding the Supreme Court rulings that state the police HAVE NO DUTY to protect any individual, how is that police protection working out in LA? You need protection FROM the police! And how did that work out at Sandy Hook? Wait, the police weren't there for almost 10 minutes, giving Lanza plenty of time to murder kindergarteners! My safety does depend on my guns, "Nancy", And I'm keeping them. All of them.

But her lunacy continues:

There are remedies for gun violence in this country:

One, regulate all military weapons and multi-round magazines. Limit number of guns that can be owned, for no private individual needs an arsenal of weapons.

So, nobody "needs" more guns than "Nancy" thinks is necessary. And notice: she implies the limit for magazines should be 1 round.

Two, strengthen and make background checks universal. As 40 percent of guns are purchased from unauthorized sources, close those venues. Make the history of all guns traceable.

Sensible gun laws should be concerned with hunters, sporting groups and some collectors. Only in rare instances are guns needed for protection.

Target shooters and those who shoot clay pigeons do not need a military weapon, nor do deer and pheasant hunters. We should encourage gun clubs where the club owns or stores the guns.

"All guns traceable" means FULL REGISTRATION. And of course, "Nancy" thinks these guns should be in the hands of the state ("gun club") until we "need" them to target-shoot or hunt. Molon labe, "Nancy" baby.

Below is my response:

Ms. Pierce--how many millions of us do you plan to have murdered to make your utopian dreams a reality?

Millions of us will not register our guns. Millions of us will not give up our guns, Ms. Pierce. Millions of us will resist, up to and including deadly force.

To take 300 million guns, you are going to have to murder enough people to make Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Pol Pot look like pikers.

We will not submit, Ms. Pierce. We will not comply. We will not surrender.